The Shard
The Shard is a skyscraper in Southwark, London designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. It has a full height of 309.7 m (1,016 ft) with 95 floors (72 habitable). It is the tallest buildings in the United Kingdom and the European Union. The fifth-tallest in Europe and the 96th-tallest in the world. It is the second tallest freestanding-structure in the United Kingdom after the Emley Moor TV Tower. It was completed in July 2012, and then opened to public in February 2013. Actual Height According to the CTBUH, The Shard is 306 m (1,004 ft) this is The Shards designed height and is what they've been told about it. The actual height is 309.7 m (1,016 ft) as it is what most sources believe. For evidence on that. When construction workers climbed to the top of The Shard at the time, it was 308.5 m (1,012 ft) at the point of its last steelwork and they added a piece of glass to make it the actual height today. In short words The Shard is 309.7 m (1,016 ft) not 306 m (1,004 ft). In December 2011, The Shard became the tallest buildings in the European Union, surpassing Germany's Commerzbank Tower which at 259 m (850 ft), was Europe's tallest building between 1997 and 2005. On 30 March 2012, The Shard surpassed Moscow's three tallest buildings, Triumph Palace 264.1 m (866 ft), Naberezhnaya Tower 268 m (879 ft) and City of Capitals 301.6 (990 ft) - which was the tallest buildings before the Shard overtook it. Each of them held the title for roughly 2.5 years. However, in November 2012, Mercury City Tower, which is 339 m (1,112 ft) overtook The Shard and Moscow reclaimed the title as having Europe's Tallest Building. Proposal and Construction In 1998, London-based entrepreneur Irvine Sellar and his then-partners decided to redevelop the 1970s era Southwark Towers following a UK government white paper encouraging the development of tall buildings at major transport hubs. Sellar flew to Berlin in the spring of 2000 to meet the Italian architect Renzo Piano for lunch. According to Sellar, Piano spoke of his contempt for conventional tall buildings during the meal, before flipping over the restaurant's menu and sketching a spire-like sculpture emerging from the River Thames. In February 2009, a mobile crane and a small piling rig arrived on site. In early March 2009, the crane began putting steel beams into the ground, as part of preparations for the core of the building. Full construction began on 16 March 2009. Demolition work on New London Bridge House started in May 2009, as part of the concurrent London Bridge Place project. The first steelwork went into The Shard's piles on 28 April. Five cranes were used to build The Shard, with four of them 'jumping' with the tower as it rose. Crane 1 was erected in September 2009 and Crane 2 was erected at the beginning of October. By 20 October 2009, steel beams began appearing on site, with concrete being poured at the northern part of the site, ready for Crane 3. By March 2010, the concrete core was rising steadily at about 3 metres (9.8 ft) a day. After a pause in March–April 2010, it continued rising, reaching the 33rd floor in mid-June, almost level with the top of Guy's Hospital, which stands at 143 metres (469 ft). On 27 July 2010, the core stopped rising, having reached the 38th floor, and was reconfigured for further construction. By mid-November 2010, the core had reached the 68th floor, with the tower's steel reaching the 40th floor and glass cladding enveloping a third of the building. In late November, the core's height exceeded 235 metres (771 ft), ending One Canada Square's 18-year reign as Britain's tallest building. The Shard's concrete core topped out at the 72nd floor in early 2011, standing at 244 metres (801 ft). The early part of January 2011 saw the installation of hydraulic screens, which were used to form the concrete floors of the hotel and apartment section of the tower, and rose with the floors up to the 69th floor. On 25 January 2011, the concrete pumps began pouring the first concrete floor at the 41st floor. By the end of February 2011, concrete flooring had risen to the 46th floor, with a new floor being poured on average every week. The cladding of the structure also progressed, mainly on the tower's "backpack". Gallery File:Shard-feb-2010-wikipedia.jpg|Under construction in February 2012 File:Shard London Bridge July 2010.jpg|In July 2010 File: LondonShardSeptember2010.jpg|September 2010 File:Shard 4.jpg|November 2010 File: Shard London Bridge January 2011.jpg|January 2011 File:Shard London Bridge, April 2011.jpg|April 2011 File:Shard London Bridge august 2011.jpg|August 2011 File:Construction in April 2012.jpg|Topped out in April 2012 119px-Shard_London_Bridge_May_2012.JPG|May 2012